3 comments MMQB Review: New Jersey Super Bowl Edition

Last week Peter King fought off strong feelings about Peyton Manning while admiring Manning's bare upper torso, he only got slightly less excited about the world getting the Super Bowl that obviously everyone wanted to see. Peter also marveled at how underrated the traffic in Denver is, because that's a real thing and all. This week Peter talks about how things are getting real for Richard Sherman, thinks the fact Peyton Manning hasn't faced any of the Seahawks defensive backs is a very significant storyline mostly because he has to fill five pages and has to create significant storylines that aren't really significant, wastes space with an interview of Lil Wayne, and tells us the New York Super Bowl should be the New Jersey Super Bowl. 

Well now, a Jersey City dateline, six days before the Super Bowl. There’s something I never thought I’d see. Or type. A Super Bowl in New Jersey.

It's only 2-3 years in the making so I can see how the suddenness of the Super Bowl being in New Jersey would still come as a shock to Peter.

But the hype machine for Super Bowl XLVIII alighted in the Garden State Sunday night, so let’s go there, to the tamest interview station of them all.

Richard Sherman’s. Of course.

This goes against the narrative that the media wants to write about Richard Sherman being just a loud-mouthed black guy. How terrible that reality doesn't match the narrative the media pursues.

I bring you these gems from Sherman’s riser Sunday night at the Jersey City Westin, a week before Seattle-Denver just up the street in East Rutherford:

“We have a team full of competitors who want to go against the best team, the best offense. We have a tremendous amount of respect for them.”
 
 “It’s all going to come down to who plays the best football.”
 
“It really comes down to the execution.”
 
“It’s going to be a battle of wills.”

All right! Who went and stole Richard Sherman?!

It's almost like Richard Sherman doesn't shout taunts into the camera towards specific opponents on a weekly basis and isn't quite the out of control player that the media has enjoyed painting him as over the last few weeks.

Someone asked him about being referred to as a thug last night, and instead of rolling his eyes and flashing anger, he said: “I think it did have some effect on opening up the channels of communication and conversation and dialogue. I think I had some impact on it, and I want to have a positive impact. I want people to understand that everybody should be judged by their character and who they are as a person and not by the color of their skin. That’s something we’ve worked to get past as a nation, as a country and we’re continuing to work on it. It’s healthy.

I’ve heard him talk like that several times, when the cameras aren’t around. I think as a person, that’s who he is.

I think a lot of people are different at work as compared to how they act in a regular, everyday setting. I'm much more patient when it comes to everyday activities, while I'm not as patient when it comes to being in a work setting. So I think it's silly to judge Sherman on his actions after the NFC Championship game and am not surprised he doesn't act like that in all of his interviews.

But this week, I expect him to be the filtered Richard Sherman. Maybe with a message Tuesday, Media Day, in Newark, for the national TV audience, but nothing too incendiary.

I thought it was very interesting that Richard Sherman wasn't specifically known for having an incendiary message until 10 minutes after the NFC Championship game, at which point the media was awaiting Sherman's next incendiary message as if he yells into television cameras all the time.

The Broncos and Seahawks are staying 1.3 miles apart, just up from the Hudson River. Outside the Denver hotel is the better view: the icy Hudson, with the new World Trade Center glistening to the east. A beautiful sight.

Really, much like the Denver traffic this sight is underrated.

But Denver has the more arduous practice road. They’ll have a 31-mile escorted trek to the Jets’ practice facility in the rolling hills of Florham Park, and will make the trip for the first time today for a light 2:55 p.m. practice.

Are the Broncos having to walk to the practice facility or something? Peter describes their practice road as arduous, but they are taking a bus or other modern transportation to get there, so the Broncos just have to sit in a bus a little longer than the Seahawks. I'm sure they will find a way to recover and make the Super Bowl competitive.

Seattle is about eight miles away from the Meadowlands. 

Better get the sled dogs fed, make sure they have their winter coats well fluffed and prepare for the arduous journey across the New Jersey landscape.

Denver coach John Fox did the smart thing, figuring he’ll have his team on buses for 70 to 90 minutes a day today, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday: He’s going to encourage his players to do homework on the trips.

Do homework, but no cheating off each other's papers. The Broncos team will never learn how to do Algebra if they start sharing answers or allow Demaryius Thomas to give them all of the answers. Plus, this bus ride will be the perfect time to prepare for Mrs. Sides' big spelling test on Monday.

In addition, Fox and FOX will get together Wednesday afternoon on the bus. He’ll do his weekly TV production meeting with the TV team of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and the network’s production staff while driving back from the Jets’ facility after practice. Smart and efficient.

As someone who has experience with John Fox quotes, here's what he'll say.

"This isn't my first rodeo."

"The Seahawks practice too."

"A punt isn't a bad play."

"It is what it is."

That about sums it up for the Foxisms.

Pete Carroll will coach the Super Bowl in a stadium in the same Jersey parking lot as the one where he got his first head-coaching shot. In fact, this month is the 20-year anniversary of Pete Carroll getting his first NFL head-coaching job.
 
This month is also the 19-year anniversary of Carroll getting fired from his first NFL head-coaching job.
 
That’s right. Carroll Chudzinskied the Jets’ job.

I remember nothing past last week and have no access to Wikipedia, so that is brand new information that I just learned.

That was a strange mix of a Jets team. (That is not the first time, nor the last, for that.) Boomer Esiason and Art Monk teamed that day for five aerial connections for 108 yards. Esiason to Monk! Bet you didn’t know they ever played on the same team.

No, I completely knew they played on the same team. I know this may shock Peter, but some of us actually have a memory and are able to remember something that occurred prior to the year 2000.

With the clock running and the ball at the Jets’ 8 with 32 seconds left, Marino hustled to the line. The man who called the plays into Marino’s helmet that season was backup Bernie Kosar,

I BET YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW BERNIE KOSAR PLAYED IN THE NFL!

Plus, Bernie Kosar was a quarterback. I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT!

That’s right: The Jets finished on a five-game losing streak. In the last week of the season, Carroll called Esiason into his office and told him, “Boomer, we’re gonna make some major changes around here, and you’re gonna love them.”

"I'm getting fired. I bet that just thrills you. And oh yeah, the Jets are going to hire Rich Kotite. It might be best to just retire or demand a trade."

But after the last loss, owner Leon Hess, 

Leon Hess is a real person. I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW THAT!

“To this day I have no idea why Mr. Hess fired Pete after one season,” Esiason said. “He was brilliant. He was the Chip Kelly of his time. I wish he’d have stayed our coach.”

Chip Kelly wasn't always the head coach of the Eagles. Few people probably remember he was the head coach at Oregon.
 
This is a very significant storyline this week.
 
I just don’t know exactly how to quantify it.

Mostly because it's a fairly contrived storyline.

Peyton Manning has never faced any of the eight Seattle defensive backs in the regular season or playoffs. He has faced the Seahawks twice in the preseason, but not when it’s counted since Oct. 4, 2009, a span of 68 games, including postseason. And, obviously, they have never faced him in a real game either.

This is incredible. How will Peyton Manning know how to throw the football and how will the Seahawks secondary understand how to play defense since they have never played each other? There is going to be mass confusion.

I think it's impossible to quantify the fact Manning and the Seahawks secondary haven't played each other before and probably pretty needless to do so as well.

Now the question: Who gets the edge—Manning or the Seattle secondary—because of the lack of exposure these two sides have had to each other?

Who knows? Maybe we will have to watch the Super Bowl to find out which team has the advantage. What a shocking conclusion! It's almost like the actual game being played on Sunday has meaning and any attempts to really quantify what could happen during the game is useless.

At first blush I’d say Manning, because, well, as Richard Sherman said a few days ago, “You can’t get in Peyton Manning’s head. If you get in his head, you’ll get lost.” Manning, and his new coordinator-in-crime, Adam Gase, are very good are figuring out things to show a defense that they’ve never seen before.

This week Manning will go to the line of scrimmage and start yelling "Boise, Boise" and all of the Seahawks defenders will be confused because he isn't yelling "Omaha."

But do you know you’ll be seeing what you’ve seen regularly this year? Andre Caldwell was thrown 19 balls in a late-season three-game stretch; Jacob Tamme got 13 Manning targets in an earlier three-game run. Manning, when he needs to, involves the rest of the roster, not just his big four.

Much of the reason Caldwell got those balls thrown to him is because Wes Welker was injured. Welker is healthy now, so I think the fact Caldwell got thrown 19 passes over three weeks is a bit misleading. Though I'm sure it will certainly confuse the Seahawks to know they have to cover every wide receiver or tight end for the Broncos rather than just the big four.

But Seattle has an edge here in that Manning hasn’t been able to replicate the Seahawks’ talent, size and physicality in practice. Other than Sherman staying at left corner—that’s an absolute given—we won’t know for sure until the game starts how Seattle plans to defend the wideouts.

This is as opposed to if Manning had faced the Seahawks secondary before he would know exactly how Seattle plans to defend the wideouts for the Broncos?

For once, the beaten-up story angle of the week (just watch)—Peyton Manning against the best secondary in football—could turn out to be the overwhelming story of the Super Bowl.

And they have never faced each other, so the game is actually going to have to be played before conclusions can be drawn. How is Peter supposed to start creating narratives in this situation? It's not fair.

The Browns coaching hire. It’s a tangled web in Cleveland—and I say that with much respect for Mike Pettine, hired as the eighth head coach in the reconstituted Browns’ 15-year history. Pettine did a fabulous job with the Bills in his one year as coordinator (Buffalo sacks in 2012: 36; in 2013: 57) and should breathe life into a team that underperformed on defense this season.

Pettine has done a great job with his defenses over the years. Let's me just say if his name were Mike Gruden or Mike Ryan then he would probably already have a head coaching job. But it does suck that Pettine was the 15th (or so) choice of the Browns.

I have heard McDaniels was the apple of owner Jimmy Haslam’s eye from the time a four-man team of Browns officials met with McDaniels in New England for seven-and-a-half hours on Wild Card Saturday, and that GM Mike Lombardi had at least two conversations with McDaniels about re-entering the coaching derby in the days after New England’s loss to Denver in the AFC title game.

Speaking of Mike Lombardi, notice how Bill Simmons has stayed the hell away from commenting about the Browns long and fruitless coaching search? I firmly believe if Mike Lombardi wasn't one of Bill's good friends then he would have made some jokes about the Browns front office and how inept they are in one of his (rare and getting rarer) Friday NFL columns. It pays to have friends in the media it seems, as Bill has stayed the hell away from jokes about Lombardi.

I have also heard, after Bill Belichick pushed hard for his friend Greg Schiano to get in the Cleveland race, that some in the Browns’ hierarchy were revved up by Schiano’s interview with the club early last week.

The Browns have barked up the "Head coaching candidate affiliated with Bill Belichick" twice before and neither candidate worked after being hired as the head coach. But hey, Mike Lombardi is be a genius, right? Why not keep going for recycled head coaching candidates?

They don’t have a long-term quarterback of the future (unless Brian Hoyer, 28, is far better than he’s shown in his four-team, four-start NFL career), and they don’t have anyone to coach one. That’s the biggest problem with the Browns now. There’s no consensus as to who will be the offensive coordinator, and certainly no consensus as to whom the team will draft in May for the new coordinator to coach.

And this much we know, Rob Chudzinksi was the problem. I mean, obviously.

On Adam Gase. The Denver offensive coordinator did the smart thing, as did his former boss in Denver, McDaniels. The coaches of Peyton Manning (Gase) and Tom Brady (McDaniels) both withdrew from the search in Cleveland and will be back piloting their explosive offenses with legendary quarterbacks in 2014 rather than coaching the Browns. Gase is 35 and has a bright future.

He's very good at choosing two plays that his quarterback can run and then allowing his quarterback to choose the play or audible out of it if necessary. If Adam Gase were the offensive coordinator on a video game, he wouldn't even be using "Coach Mode" since the team has to run the play you call in that mode. Gase runs the Broncos offense in "Coach, unless you have a better idea than go ahead and call that play, Mode" if he were the offensive coordinator on a video game.

Nothing against Adam Gase and I wouldn't have wanted the Cleveland Browns job either if I could write Peyton Manning's coattails a little longer and get a better job offer. I don't think I would want to work for the Browns either.

Speaking of McDaniels … Which no one in Denver likes to do. People in Denver figure McDaniels “ran off” Jay Cutler, which he didn’t do, and then drafted Tim Tebow and got fired in the midst of a crash-and-burn 4-12 season. So the venom spews. But let’s be fair here. Look around the Broncos roster, which McDaniels had control of in 2009 and 2010. From the 2009 draft: Knowshon Moreno (1,586 yards from scrimmage and 13 touchdowns this year), defensive end Robert Ayers (sack of Tom Brady in the AFC title game) and special-teams captain David Bruton are here. From the 2010 draft: the two leading receivers—Demaryius Thomas (92 catches, 14 touchdowns) and Eric Decker (87 catches, 11 TDs)—are here, plus starting guard Zane Beadles.

To be ever more fair, I think this goes to show the talent of Brian Xanders as a GM and John Fox as a head coach more than it shows the coaching ability of Josh McDaniels. I recognize most of these guys were really young when they played under McDaniels, but they have flourished under Fox, and Xanders is the guy most responsible for choosing them. So I know Peter is trying to rehab Josh McDaniels' image in a way, but I think Brian Xanders deserves a shout-out too.

He has said time and again that when he compared teams, he liked the young receivers that Denver had. Who would have been in their place, and would they have passed Manning’s muster? Or would be have looked at Larry Fitzgerald and the Manning-friendly offense of Ken Whisenhunt in Arizona a little more fondly? Point is, McDaniels shouldn’t be a Denver pariah in this Super Bowl week. He should be thanked.

Not Brian Xanders? He doesn't merit a mention here? Check out what's done in terms of personnel acquisition. I think he should be thanked more than Josh McDaniels should be thanked.

Well, I never thought I’d be interviewing a rapper for The MMQB. But one of our writers, Robert Klemko, knew how passionate a football fan Lil Wayne is, and Klemko met his publicist, and one thing led to another, and Tuesday night the publicist said to me: “I’m patching you through to Wayne.” 

I would love to have heard this conversation recorded. I'm surprised Peter didn't ask Lil Wayne which U2 album he thought was the best and whether he watched "The Office" or not. On a more realistic note, this is the type of addendum to MMQB that causes it to feel bloated. I think the full interview Lil Wayne should be posted as a separate article on THE MMQB rather than spend space in MMQB, but I'm not Peter's editor, so perhaps he thought it fit in well with MMQB. To me, it just adds to the bloat.

“A lot of the writers think I’m boring. So I’m going to go all Richard Sherman on you.”

—Boston Red Sox GM Ben Cherington, to Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe.

Riveting. I'm glad this quote was included in MMQB. I mean, I really think this quote is super-important to my understanding of the NFL and MLB.

Peter left out his "Fine Fifteen" this week, which was probably a smart move. I did say the following last week though,

1. Seattle (15-3)
 
2. Denver (15-3)
I'm guessing Peter will have these teams arranged in this order this week and then flip-flop them once he picks the Broncos to win the Super Bowl despite the fact no games have been played which would give him no logical reason to flip-flop their spots, though it wouldn't shock me if Peter put Seattle #1 in his Fine Fifteen and then picked the Broncos to win the Super Bowl.

Take a wild guess which team Peter has picked to win the Super Bowl? I'll give you a hint, it's not Seattle. Peter did something similar earlier in the year when he put the Kansas City Chiefs at #1 in his "Fine Fifteen" until the week where the Broncos and Chiefs played. At that point, he moved the Broncos head of the Chiefs despite the fact the Chiefs had not lost and had a bye week the week before. What changed on the bye week that could have moved the Chiefs out of the #1 spot on the "Fine Fifteen"? Other than they played the Broncos of course? So Peter's "Fine Fifteen" isn't the most accurate measurement of which team Peter believes is the strongest in the NFL. He ranks Seattle above the Broncos in the previous week's "Fine Fifteen," no games are played the following weekend, and then picks the Broncos to beat the Seahawks. 

Mr. Starwood Preferred Member Travel Note of the Week

I have never covered a Super Bowl in the town where I lived, so even though I think it’s a bad idea to have the Super Bowl in an outdoor freezer, I am pleased to be home this week. To get my credential for the week’s media responsibilities, I left my apartment on the east side of Manhattan Sunday about 2:30 p.m., and walked nine blocks to the Sheraton Times Square, which is the media hotel for the Super Bowl. I picked up my press credential, then boarded a bus at 3:30 for the Broncos’ team hotel in Jersey City, across the Hudson River.

Now these Broncos and Seahawks players can see firsthand all of the big city annoyances that Peter has to deal with on a weekly basis. There are people on the train minding their own business doing weird things while Peter stares intently at them, the Starbucks baristas don't always make every cup of Peter's coffee perfectly and tourists take pictures of the Apple logo. How insane.

What will be odd about this Super Bowl: The media events with the teams, and the team hotels, and the practice sites, and the Super Bowl, will be in New Jersey. Everything else—the parties, the major-domo press conferences, the media center—will be in Manhattan.

But where will Bruce Springsteen be? Isn't he the shining example of New Jersey?

I'm sure Jon Bon Jovi, who is a Jersey guy and apparently a diehard Patriots fan because he is friends with Robert Kraft/a front runner, will be at the game too. They will be in New Jersey, doesn't that count for something, Peter?

I lived in New Jersey with my family for 24 years. I love the state. Not every inch of it,

NOT TO NAME ANY NAMES, BUT HE'S TALKING TO YOU THREE MILES OF LOWER NEW JERSEY!

So I’m a little sensitive about the New York-ification of everything major league that goes on in New Jersey. Like this Super Bowl. The teams are in Jersey. The practices are in Jersey. The players and coaches meet the press in Jersey. The game’s in Jersey.

But it’s the New York Super Bowl.

Well, it's the media that writes this story so they could be directionally correct if they wanted to, but they choose not to. I think part of the reason this is considered the New York Super Bowl is because the Giants and Jets play at the stadium the Super Bowl will be played in and they are both New York teams.

Peter thinks that's bad, he should try living in North Carolina with South Carolina always lurking and looking to confuse everyone that North Carolina wants anything to do with South Carolina. It didn't help that Jerry Richardson named the Panthers the "Carolina Panthers," but South Carolina also insists on talking to North Carolina at parties and just generally being that cousin who doesn't get invited to family reunions but shows up anyway somehow.

I’ll be drinking in Hoboken Tuesday night, thank you.

I bet Peter will be drinking an Allagash White. 

“Richard Sherman seems to be on his best behavior during his first Super Bowl media exposure. Unfortunately.”

—@MichaelJLev, of the Orange County Register, tweeting from the Richard Sherman news conference Sunday night.

It's so sad Sherman isn't acting up so sportswriters can call him a thug and generally turn his behavior into a narrative about the entire Seahawks team.

Ten Things I Think I Think

3. I think new Tampa Bay GM Jason Licht (pronounced “Light”) had an interesting take the other day when asked who would have the final say on the draft—him or coach Lovie Smith. (It’s widely thought around the league that the buck will stop with Smith on all football decisions.) Said Licht: “There will be no arguments on draft day

So the buck will stop with Lovie Smith then?

We’ll have arguments on players. I’m going to plead my case. I told Lovie, during the interview process, that if he doesn’t like a player, I’m going to be in his office 20 times trying to prove why my player, that I like, is the guy that we need, and I’m sure he’ll do the same thing. If we don’t come to an agreement, the answer is easy, it lies in itself—we won’t take that player.”

This sounds like one of the worst ideas I have heard as it pertains to a head coach and a GM deciding which player to take. So if neither party can agree on a player then they just won't take the player? What if the Buccaneers are choosing between Johnny Manziel and Blake Bortles and Smith likes Bortles while Licht likes Manziel? Will no decision be made and the Buccaneers just won't take a quarterback? This seems counterproductive to me, especially if the Buccaneers need a quarterback.

I’ll be interested to follow that down the line.

Yeah, me too. This method of conflict resolution as it pertains to which player to take seems like a bad way to go about player evaluation and selection. At some point, there has to be a player that neither Licht or Smith can agree upon and they will just not make a decision at all as opposed to making a decision both are unhappy with. This does sound like how Congress goes about their business, but I'm thinking it will cause more gridlock and bad will than just letting Smith or Licht have their way. What do I know though? When there is a conflict over a decision on which player to choose, choosing neither player seems like a bad idea to me.

7. I think San Francisco offensive coordinator Greg Roman, unfortunately, may turn out to be the offensive version of Mike Zimmer, who had to wait far too long for his chance to be a head coach. Cleveland not interviewing Roman … absolutely amazing.

Earlier this year, Peter was wanting more minority candidates to receive interviews for NFL head coaching jobs. Yet I can't help but notice every time he discusses an NFL head coaching candidate who deserves an interview or has waited too long for an interview he always mentions a white guy and not a minority.

9.  I think I will make this promise to you, as Super Bowl Week dawns: I promise I will not hit you over the head with weather reporting/complaining. It’ll get a mention now and again, but not a daily pounding.

Peter hit us with weather report and was complaining about the weather in a previous MMQB. So Peter go his weather complaining in earlier in the season.

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

d. Bieber. Lohan. How do you tell them apart?

One is a girl but looks like a 40-year old woman and the other is a boy but is slowly looking more and more like a girl.

i. How do the Asbury Jukes wear all Rangers stuff?

They put the clothes over their head and then put their arms through the holes of the Rangers gear they wear. Probably the same way Jon Bon Jovi is a big Patriots fan despite the fact he is from New Jersey and owned a Philadelphia arena league team.

k. Beernerdness: Had the good fortune to meet Jim Koch, the Sam Adams brewer, on the SI Now show the other day in New York. We talked craft beer, and he handed me one of his new ones. “Cold Snap.” A wheat beer, he said

Yep, and "Cold Snap" isn't all that great. It's like a wheat beer for people who like the taste of Bud Light.

with spices like coriander and orange peel. And I’m thinking, “Hmmm. Allagash White.”

And I'm thinking there aren't too many beers I consider real beers if you have to put an orange peel in it.

So I popped it open Friday night. A tad darker than Allagash, but the same nose and similar taste. Loved it.

It tastes mediocre, so of course Peter loved it. I gave it a 2.5 on the Untapped app (which is an awesome beer app where you get to rank the beers you drink and share beers you drink with friends) and I was probably being generous.

l. Matt Garza to the Brew Crew. I like it. Good signing. If healthy, he should win 15.

Congrats Brewers! Your signing of Matt Garza has Peter King's approval! Given Peter's knowledge of baseball and individual baseball players, how can this not thrill you?

The Adieu Haiku

Sad thing re Pro Bowl:
End of Tony Gonzalez.
At least in football.

Oh, so Tony Gonzalez will continue living and not die. Thanks for clearing up it's the end of Tony Gonzalez, but only in football. I BET YOU DIDN'T KNOW TONY GONZALEZ PLAYED BASKETBALL IN COLLEGE! 

3 comments MMQB Review: Much to Peter's Surprise, Week 17 Was Exciting Edition

Peter King thought this was a better-than-expected Week 17 and this surprised him. I guess he thought the last week of the season was going to be boring, outside of him getting to see J.J. Watt and Andrew Luck in person of course. This week in MMQB, Peter talks about the surprising Redskins (why didn't anyone tell the media that was too busy covering the Jets that the Redskins were a good team?), reviews his preseason picks, and then does a really strange listing of eulogies for those who died during 2012. Along with including haikus in MMQB this has been a kind of strange year for Peter and MMQB.

What a regular season. What a year. What a Sunday.

J.J. Watt? As Salt-N-Pepa say, what a man.

And there was Adrian Peterson, beat up, needing 208 yards to break the all-time single-season rushing record, which seemed the impossible dream.

Peter King refers to Adrian Peterson's hunt for the single-season rushing record in hyperbolic terms as "the impossible dream." This from a guy who expects us to take him seriously when he starts talking about political matters. Perhaps when he stops referring to a sports record as "the impossible dream" I can take his opinion on gun control more seriously.

That was about it. Where was the drama in the AFC? All six playoff teams locked.

Yeah, where is the drama? You can't expect MMQB to write itself, people. Make it easy to write MMQB and give Peter King manufactured drama. Otherwise, there is no reason for him to continue writing on a weekly basis about the NFL and we would get an entire MMQB about Peter describing his coffee habits and complaining about the people he meets in public.

it's Denver, New England and Houston, and the Texans have to come to work today to prepare for a wild-card game they had no desire to play.

This must be as opposed to AFC teams like Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis who didn't want to get a first round bye and really, really, really wanted to play a wild-card game this weekend.

Not to mention the fact that the Patriots and Broncos are one home win from a Manning-Brady AFC title game in the Rockies.

DRRRRAMA! Super-good times for Peter!

And we didn't count on Green Bay-Minnesota being one of the three or four best games of the year ... and Peterson making us hold our breath as he climbed toward a record he had no business breaking,

Well, it was the impossible dream after all.

and Minnesota trying to beat its arch rival to scratch and claw into the playoffs, and Peterson making a mess of what should have been a Peyton Manning MVP-walkaway.

Doesn't Adrian Peterson know the narrative was already written? Peyton Manning was going to win the MVP award this year. But noooooooooo, Peterson has to go and show how he may deserve the MVP trophy for 2012. Selfish prick.

On the field as time ticked down late Sunday night and FedEx Field rocked, Griffin said to Morris: "We came here as rookies this year, and they hadn't won the NFC East in forever. And we won it. Now look at us -- the sky's the limit!''

Look at Robert Griffin speaking English in a most fine manner...just like a good ol' cornball brother would do. Being all literate and successful and shit. Help "the cause" Robert Griffin and start "acting black," whatever the fuck that means.

The end of the Tebow Error with the Jets;

I see what you did there Peter! The Sportswriter of the Year award is now yours for the taking.

The Chiefs getting the first pick in the quarterback-starved 2013 draft -- just not knowing who will make that pick with the fate of GM Scott Pioli still up in the air. Peyton Manning finishing the second-most prolific passing season of his life (4,659 yards, 37 touchdowns), an event made all the more impressive by the fact he had his first padded practice with the Broncos five months ago.

And here we all thought Peyton Manning had forgotten how to play football while watching during the entire 2011 season.

The whole nine yards.
(Stole that from Sam Farmer of the LA Times. More about that later.)

More on Peter King stealing a headline later, but for now he's stealing the last bagel off the hotel buffet and hurrying to make it to Starbucks in time to complain about the long lines and criticize how other people dare to live their lives.

Fifteen seconds left. They unpiled. Peterson got up, quickly for a man who'd just carried for the 34th time with a sore groin and abdomen. Thirteen, 12, 11 ...

Would Vikes coach Leslie Frazier, who'd said he'd do nothing out of the ordinary to get Peterson the record, call time and run another play?

Sean Payton would have had Christian Ponder run backwards for 20 yards out of bounds and then try to get Peterson the single-season rushing record on the next play or two. Sean Payton thinks no one will remember the Vikings made the playoffs, but everyone will remember the Adrian Peterson personal achievement in breaking the single-season rushing record.

Frazier played it exactly right. If the record was going to happen, it'd have to come within the confines of doing everything to try to win the game. This wasn't going to be some cheap Nykesha Sales kind of record.

Or like Brett Favre taking a dive so Michael Strahan can get the single-season sack record? That's probably the first cheap record that comes to a lot of NFL fan's minds, but Peter can't go about criticizing Lord Favre like that. Favre didn't take a dive at all. He just fell. If you believe that...

I told Peterson I liked how he went for the record, but I also liked how he and Frazier didn't do anything to force it.

You mean like run up the score on two teams at the end of the season so your running back and quarterback can achieve personal records? Who ever would do that?

(Sorry to read me constantly complain about that, but Sean Payton had a complete lack of sportsmanship in mind last year over the last two games and I will be over it at the approximate time Payton retires as an NFL head coach...which depending on how the Saints defense plays over the next few seasons could be 2-3 years. From now on, I will do my best to discontinue the angry, bitter criticisms of Payton...maybe.)

Such a tough call. I think it comes down to Manning and Peterson;

I don't know. Replace Peyton Manning with an average quarterback and I can see the Broncos still making the playoffs. After all, they play in a bad division and made the playoffs last year with a running back as their quarterback. Take away Adrian Peterson and replace him with an average running back and do you think the Vikings make the playoffs? I'm not so sure about that.

Quick thoughts on the four games in the Wild Card round:

Well, make it quick. I want to hear more about how you steal headlines from other writers.

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET (NBC), AFC: Cincinnati (No.6, 10-6) at Houston (No. 3, 12-4). The Texans have been thinking for weeks they were in line for a first-round bye, and so it has to be demoralizing to know that, instead of getting four or five days off this week, they have to get right back to work -- and on a short week, no less, with the Saturday game -- and prep for Cincinnati.

The reason I don't trust the Texans in the playoffs is because of this. They have lost three out of their last four games and played on Sunday like they just expected the Colts to roll over. I get they may not have wanted to show off any super-special bootleg plays they have in their playbook, but they have to do better than they did on Sunday. So to me, the Texans are a struggling team that seems to lack the ability/movation to win a playoff game right now. Plus, the game is on national television and Matt Schaub usually sucks when he is on national television.

I expect J.J. Watt will have something to say about that. Not only did he have a league-high 20.5 sacks this year, but also he added 39 tackles for loss or no gain on running plays. Think of that: 60 tackles of quarterbacks or backs at or behind the line of scrimmage. Almost four per game. Very close to call, but I'll go with Houston.

J.J. Watt is pretty much the difference in this game according to Peter King. Not a shocking pick or reasoning used coming from Peter.

The Packers can expect limited possessions, because Minnesota's game plan will surely be to have Adrian Peterson eat the clock with carry after carry, and Christian Ponder (with his newfound confidence) throw short and intermediate. If Rodgers is Rodgers, I expect Green Bay to move on.

Yes, but Rodgers was Rodgers on Sunday and the Packers still lost.

My reality: I voted Adrian Peterson for MVP (edging Manning), Peterson and J.J. Watt offensive and defensive player, twin 'Hawks Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner offensive and defensive rookies, a tie between Manning and Peterson for comeback player,

Adrian Peterson played 75% of the year last year. Give the award to Peyton Manning. It's ridiculous to have Manning and Peterson tie for the Comeback Player of the Year award, but then give the MVP to Peterson. I realize Adrian Peterson coming back from his knee injury was very, very incredible, but he played the majority of the 2011 season. I wouldn't vote for him as Comeback Player of the Year.

and a tie between Chuck Pagano and Bruce Arians as coach of the year.

Just give the damn award to Bruce Arians. He coached the Colts for nearly the entire season. Yes, we all love Chuck Pagano's story and how inspirational he is, but he didn't coach the entire year. I don't see a reason to split the Coach of the Year vote in this situation. Just give it to Arians. You aren't being an asshole by not having Pagano share it with Arians.

Remember when we all looked at the Vikings' schedule a month ago, and we said the Vikings would never survive December, with Green Bay twice, Chicago once and Houston and St. Louis on the road? With Percy Harvin out for the year and Christian Ponder playing like -- Jimmy Johnson's words, not mine -- the worst quarterback in the league (non-Sanchez division, of course), what real hope did the Vikings have?

To be fair to Mark Sanchez, he doesn't have a running back like Adrian Peterson sharing the backfield with him. Without Adrian Peterson I think Christian Ponder could be worse than Mark Sanchez.

Defensive rookie: Bobby Wagner, edging Green Bay cornerback Casey Hayward and Carolina linebacker Luke Kuechly. Wagner turned a suspect group of Seattle linebackers, the weak point of the Seahawks defense, into a competitive group by being great against the run (more tackles than Patrick Willis) and good dropping into coverage (three interceptions, excellent instincts).

I'm not saying Kuechly should be Defensive Rookie of the Year, but once he took over from Jon Beason as the middle linebacker the Panthers defense went from the lower 20's in total defense to being #10 in the NFL in total defense. Kuechly had 24 more tackles than Wagner, recovered three more fumbles, had one less interception than Wagner but had more passes defensed and stuffs, and also had excellent instincts. Okay, maybe I am saying Kuechly should be Defensive Rookie of the Year. Either way, I don't care really, but if Peter wants to use this criteria then he should also acknowledge Kuechly was better than Wagner in nearly every important defensive category. Of course Wagner's team made the playoffs, which we all know is very important when discussing individual awards.

Coach: Some might pick Arians alone; some might pick one of many other deserving candidates. Some might say Pagano was 2-2 in the games he coached;

Some people may throw out "facts" or obvious reasons that Peter's line of thinking is wrong, but what these people don't understand is the emotion of the pick. Exclude all of the facts as to why Arians should win this award alone and just base it on emotion. That's all Peter King asks.

After traveling to Indianapolis in November for an SI story on the unexpected rise of the Colts in the absence of the leukemia-stricken Pagano, I saw how involved Pagano was. Scores of texts and phone calls, hours of watching practice tape, every day, while the chemotherapy flowed into a port in his chest ... And when I was out with GM Ryan Grigson one night, the phone rang, and it was Pagano. He was telling Grigson to remember to get a ball painted for reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week Darius Butler, a player Pagano had never met. In other words, he was painstakingly involved in everything that happened with the team this season. Arians, 9-3 in his absence, was the hands-on coach who piloted the Colts into the playoffs. There you have the reason for my split vote.

The Colts trainer and assistant GM is also involved with the day-to-day operations of the team. Should they also share the Coach of the Year award with Bruce Arians? I get Pagano did some scouting and coaching from the sidelines, but Bruce Arians was the day-to-day head coach. It takes nothing away from Pagano and his fight against leukemia if he doesn't share this award with Bruce Arians.

Fine Fifteen

2. New England (12-4). One win by the Broncos and one by the Patriots ... That's all that stands in the way of a Peyton Manning-Tom Brady AFC Championship Game Jan. 20.

And really, after that game is there a reason to even play the Super Bowl? It would just be a let-down.

4. Green Bay (11-5). Tough one to lose at the Metrodome, but I don't see the loss hurting the Pack in the wild-card rematch at Lambeau.

As long as Rodgers is Rodgers. If you don't know exactly what that means, you aren't the only one.

7. Washington (10-6). I can see Seattle defensive coordinator Gus Bradley and his staff firing up the tape this morning and wondering how they're going to stop the unstoppable Redskin in their wild-card meeting Sunday. "Anybody got any ideas about putting a lid on Alfred Morris?'' he'll ask.

And? There has to be more, Peter! You have set up the beginning of an absolutely enthralling novel and just end it like that without any resolution?

15. St. Louis (7-8-1). A total makeover, and still Steven Jackson proved he's the perfect back for Jeff Fisher. He needs to return in 2013, and he sounds like he will.

Since Peter and Jeff Fisher share the same agent, the fact Peter talks up the Rams nearly every week isn't suspicious at all.

"Sean Payton might want to invest some of that $8 million in buying a defense for next year.''

-- Jim Szoke of the Carolina Radio Network, as the Panthers ran through the Saints Sunday, as relayed by ESPN NFC South blogger Pat Yasinkas from New Orleans.

Poking the bear that is Sean Payton never gets old to me. Well, it probably will get old at some point (and I know, I know, we are currently at that point), but I still enjoy it. I heard all year that the Saints defense was having trouble grasping the intricacies of Steve Spagnuolo, but I think it is more possible the Saints defense just wasn't very good during the 2012 season.

Sean Payton can't start working with his team again until approximately April 19, the start of the official Saints' offseason program, and that must be maddening for such a micromanaging worker bee. But when he does, he has to start working anew with Drew Brees on his efficiency.

Yes, Sean Payton should work on the quarterback who threw for 5000 yards this year, while ignoring the defense that gave up over 7000 yards of offense to opposing teams.

I've heard Payton noticed one glaring thing about Brees when he watched Saints' games this year while serving his year suspension -- how many times he took chances downfield when the chances really were long shots, and when his focus should have turned from the deep ball to the checkdown or intermediate ball. That's a big reason his completion percentage without Payton was a shell of what it was with him.

Drew Brees completion percentage was 63%. Yes, he had a higher completion percentage with Payton as his head coach, but it isn't like Brees was terrible. Brees is a terrific quarterback and will be fine. If anything, Sean Payton needs to notice from watching Saints games is how the hell he is going to fix the Saints defense.

Then Peter writes a travel note about someone else's traveling difficulties. It's bad enough when Peter tells us about his travel issues during a given week, but relaying a travel note from a sportswriter who isn't himself seems like something that is completely irrelevant for Peter's readership.

"Brings new meaning to the term 'the whole nine yards.' "

-- @LATimesfarmer, football writer Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times, just after Adrian Peterson finished nine yards shy of breaking Eric Dickerson's single-season rushing record.

Apparently this was such an interesting Tweet that Peter felt compelled to steal it and then tease us about why he stole it. A lot of buildup for this one.

1. I think this is what I liked about Week 17:

c. On the first play of Colts-Texans, it was fitting J.J. Watt broke through the line and broke up the handoff play, leading to a one-yard loss.

Yes, it was very fitting. Then after that? What did Watt do after that Peter "Cherry-Pick" King? He had three more tackles and a pass defensed. Much like the Texans team as a whole, Watt started off strong and then didn't do a whole lot after that. It's not terrible for a defensive lineman to only have four tackles, but Peter picks one play and then tries to make it seem like Watt had a terrific game.

d. Rueben Randle. Two touchdowns in the first nine minutes. Just 21 years old.

Wow, more fun with numbers. Peter leaves out the fact Randle had 250 yards and one touchdown prior to this game. Randle may have a bright future, but two touchdowns in the first nine minutes of one game does not a career make.

n. Michael Crabtree: eight catches, 172 yards, two touchdowns. We're seeing the dawn of a great receiver's career, I believe.

Yes, and he is only 25 years old. I hope Michael Crabtree makes the Hall of Fame so Gregg Easterbrook can continue to pretend he didn't invent the "Crabtree Curse" and didn't repeatedly tell us Michael Crabtree was dragging the 49ers team down.

2. I think this is what I didn't like about Week 17:

b. Nnamdi Asomugha, who has had 17 forgettable (but profitable) months as an Eagles savior.

Remember back when Peter King said Asomugha was a Top 10 NFL player? I do and I bet Peter King would like to forget that comment.

h. Too many officials look too heavy to me.

Pot, meet kettle. Of course Peter's job doesn't require him to keep up with world-class athletes, but that shouldn't really matter. Either way, NFL officials are probably in better shape than Peter King.

It's absurd that a guy gets in on name recognition while missing 44 percent of the games one year and 38 percent of the game in another year. That's one of many reasons -- but a big one -- why I treat the Pro Bowl with back-of-the-hand deference. It deserves it.

I could probably get upset about my favorite team's Pro Bowl snubs, but that would mean I think the Pro Bowl actually means something for me to get worked up over it. The Pro Bowl is pointless and I haven't watched it in a decade. I don't need voters to tell which players are the best at each position. There are better measurements to tell me this then what a popularity contest tells me. 

10. I think these are my non-football thoughts of the week:

a. You never told me about Homeland.

Because it is the responsibility of Peter's readers to inform him of what is or is not a good television show. We are all Peter's servants who only exist to hear his weekly complaints and give him information upon demand. If Peter is a fan of television and hasn't heard how good "Homeland" is then that's on him.

Daughter Laura gave me the first season of the show on DVD for Christmas,

On DVD? I didn't realize it was 2002.

c. Saw two movies over the holidays. Silver Linings Playbook I liked a lot; Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence were superb, and the story felt real. And I saw on a movie channel Contagion, the doomy Matt Damon/Laurence Fishburne job. Liked that one too, particularly the way the contagion is researched and sourced back to bats.

Thank you for updating us on the movies you watched recently. Of course I shouldn't expect anything different from a man who tells us in-depth about his bowel troubles while on a plane.

g. Coffeenerdness: Just my luck Sunday to get behind the Parisians with the $47 order in line at Starbucks in Manhattan. They must love that bisciotti. Got nine of them.

I know. Peter is such an unlucky guy. He gets paid enough money to purchase expensive, mediocre coffee everyday. Gosh, when will Peter ever get a break in his life?

Among those we lost in a particularly sad year for deaths:

Is this as opposed to a year that doesn't have a lot of sad deaths? I remember back in 2005 when it wasn't really sad to have a bunch of people die. These people all deserved to die. 2012 though? What a sad year for deaths.

Vidal Sassoon, hair guy. Cut and sprayed a lot of famous people's hair.

Thanks for the tribute, Peter. Touching and heartfelt.

Why even do these eulogies if Peter is going to be snide about some of the deaths? What does it contribute?

Donna Summer, singer. She worked hard for the money.

Yes, she did Peter. Yes, she did. I'm surprised Peter didn't get a chance to speak at Donna Summer's funeral. I'm getting teary right now just thinking about song titles he would have magnificently placed into his tribute to her.

Adieu Haiku

BobGriff v Wilson
Wild Card dream is coming true.
Will Obama watch?

Will Obama watch?
Who cares? Real question might be
Will Texans show up?

0 comments Ten Things I Think I Think Peter King Has Not Thought Of: Small Market Team Edition

Still no Bill Simmons whiny ass article about the Patriots. It's funny, you get a next day column when something good happens to his teams, but when something bad happens, he reverts to his usual schedule (Colts winning Super Bowl, etc.) of one column a week.

1. FireJay has a good post up here which contains this article. I have a personal problem with the article because it says the Marlins are ruining baseball because they don't spend any money and use the revenue sharing for nothing baseball related. This whole "ruining baseball" argument is ruining my day right now. The Yankees are ruining the competitive balance of baseball by signing away all of the great players no other team tries to afford, that is argument some people make. These people therefore champion a salary cap in baseball. This guy uses diversion tactics to say the Florida Marlins are ruining the financial structure of baseball, which is completely different from the competitive balance. I don't give two shits about revenue sharing and what teams are doing with the money, my problem lies in the fact the Yankees are turning every team into a small market team. I don't want a salary cap but I also would like for others to pay attention to the problem and not get off topic on the Marlins choice in spending their revenue sharing money. Regardless of whether I agree with his argument or not, he makes some poor points.

Get over it. The free market is the best way to go.

I don't know how to "beyond agree" with something, but I do with this.

Football has parity, but it’s almost ridiculous how quickly teams change. There’s no team identity from year to year, and very few trades (which are exciting for the fans).

So the reason to not have a salary cap is that the teams in football change so quickly because of free agent signings and teams changing the roster around? In other words, the free market system is the problem?

There is a team identity every single year in football because young players can stay with the team that drafted them, so good teams keep their good players because they have the same payroll restrictions as other teams. Indianapolis has the same ability to sign Reggie Wayne as the New York Giants because the New York Giants don't have $50 million dollars the Colts don't have access to. The pro football system actually allows there to be a larger team identity for a longer period of time because a team can afford to keep its own players. It may sound like I want a salary cap but I really do not. It is very tempting though.

Trades are exciting, so are bench clearing fights, but I am not going to condone more fighting. This is stupid.

Basketball has an interesting mix of continuity and parity, but figuring out a deal in basketball is more a question of math than a negotiation of teams with needs. The maximum salary slots also create a sub-class of overvalued stars that just get shipped from team to team as the league waits for their bloated contract to expire (think Al Harrington).

I agree with the overvalued star part in the NBA but EVERY SPORT has to deal with bloated contracts that teams have to wait to expire, in fact basketball actually has this correct because to trade these contracts you have to take on a bloated contract in return. There is no salary dumping allowed without getting a larger salary in return. Actually, the NBA system does suck, but in theory it would work well.

No, the system baseball has is, for the most part, the best way to go.

Absolutely, bloated contracts like Jaret Wright, Carl Pavano, Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, Barry Zito, and Andruw Jones never happen right? You get negative points for this sentence.

Teams have a chance of winning every year - just look at the small market teams that have found postseason success over the past five years

Actually in every sport teams have a chance to win every year. The Celtics went from bad to champions, the Rays went from bad to champions, and the Dolphins went from winning one game to winning their division. It happens in every sport. This is not necessarily exclusive to baseball.

Using a revenue-sharing system to penalize the Yankees for their huge payroll is not a terrible system - provided, of course, that the smaller market teams actually use the money for good use.

Mr. "I love a free market" wants to regulate how teams spend their revenue sharing money or at least make sure they use it for certain purposes.

The Marlins were a good team last year, going 84-77 in a division where 92 wins meant first place. Imagine if the Marlins decided to actually use the revenue-sharing money to sign Manny Ramirez for two years at $25 million. Throw in a little money for a starting pitcher, and this team could compete with the New York Mets immediately.

Simple as that! The Marlins payroll was $23 million last year, if they just double their payroll on two players they will compete with the Mets!

I would love to know where this magical impact starting pitcher is supposed to come from and how Manny is going to be convinced to take $12.5 million per year when he opted out of a contract that paid him much more than that. Therein lies the fucking problem. If the Marlins bid on a starting pitcher and the Yankees wanted that pitcher, they would blow the Marlins bid out of the water. The second the Red Sox, Dodgers, or Yankees heard Manny could be had for $12.5 million per year, they would up it to $15 million per year or give him an extra year and then the Marlins have lost Manny as well. That is the problem. The Marlins can't just decide to sign Manny, because even with the wonderful revenue sharing, they can't pay what the Yankees can pay in the long run.

I don't hate the Yankees at all and I don't want a salary cap. This magical little paragraph he just wrote about how the Marlins could improve their team, I don't think it could actually happen. The prices of these players get so jacked up by the free market, the Marlins can not be players in the free agent market, except at a lower level. Ask the Nationals how bidding on Mark Teixeira worked out for them. They were used to up the bidding until a larger market team gave him exactly what he wanted.

Even if they didn’t go as far as Manny, shouldn’t the Marlins be in on players like Pat Burrell and Ty Wiggington? They need a left fielder and a corner infielder, obviously.

What the fuck are these two players going to do for the Marlins? They certainly are not the key to winning the NL East. In fact, the Marlins are a horrible example to use because they are not a real team. They are the farm club for the other farm clubs to the Yankees. They draw 5,000 fans a game and have no interest in putting a competitive team on the field.

I am more concerned with the mid-market teams and their ability to compete with free agents. The simple fact is the Milwaukee Brewers can not go out and sign a team changing free agent if the Yankees or any other team wants this player. This is the worst possible thing for continuity on a team and for the fans.

On a personal note, I never really got excited the Braves traded for Tex, J.D. Drew or Gary Sheffield because I knew when they were free agents there is no way we could keep those players. That is what I am worried about, not the revenue sharing structure. It is hard to enjoy a player on a team knowing there is no way he will be on the team in the next year. Whose fault is that? Not the Yankees but also not the Braves because they can't bust their payroll to keep their self imposed payroll on one guy.

While this has worked for the Marlins, the fact that they are hoarding their revenue-sharing money, costs veteran players real money, narrows the field for prospective free agents, and adds to the perception of baseball as being a league of haves and have-nots.

No, no, no. The people who are narrowing the field for free agents are the free agents and the player's agents themselves. Once they put themselves in a certain salary range, it cuts out part of the league. When A.J. Burnett, Sabathia, and Tex go on the free agent market and the Yankees outbid large market teams (Red Sox, Braves, Dodgers, Angels) for these players, it feels like a problem to me. Last year the Yankees were the only team who could bid on A Rod anywhere near the salary range he required. The Marlins have no interest in competing, I am worried about those teams that do have an interest in competing. I don't know the solution but I don't think the Marlins are the problem.

2. Terrell Davis wants to remind everyone he is still alive.

These same guys who are taking cheap shots at T.O. and Roy Williams now are going to be wanting interviews from them a year from now and talking on air about what great players they are.

"The first guy that's got to go is T.O..." T.D. said. "T.O. I'm sorry you are a cancer. You got to go."

First off, this is not news. Second off, T.O. is not going to fire himself, so that message should have been delivered to Jerry Jones. You can't just cut great receivers either. Pain in the ass as he may be, you can't just cut him.

Can we stop talking about the Cowboys now please?

3. Last week I wrote this sentence:

Again, it is only one offseason, and really the Yankees have to sign free agents because they have no players in their farm system that can help right now and they don't have the players in the system to trade for players, but this scares me a little bit. What happens when Hanley Ramirez becomes a free agent?

Apparently the Red Sox did not want to wait that long.

Unfortunately for them, the trade offer was rebuffed.

The Marlins were said to be most interested in a centerfielder, and it's believed Boston's promising young centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury and talented pitching prospect Clay Buchholz were among those mentioned in a potential package for Ramirez,

I wonder what would have gotten the deal done? That seems like a good start to a package and I wonder what else the Marlins wanted. This is why I don't even count the Marlins as a MLB team because they just sell off parts of their team to other teams.

The Marlins are not ruining baseball if you like the free market system, they are actually just speeding the process up and allowing the top players to play for the large market teams originally.

The Red Sox actually use their farm system to acquire players, so this does not disturb me quite as much, because any team could offer the prospects to get Ramirez.

4. I wonder if the dementia was inherited by his son, Dean?

Dean did fire Marty Schottenheimer and keep Philip Rivers over Drew Brees. Ok, that may be an arguable point since they both are good QB's but imagine the Chargers with Brees. Don't you think they would be just a little better than 8-8?

5. I am little shocked Mangini got fired and I agree with Alex Marvez, I think Favre's presence had something to do with it.

Here's where the debate gets interesting. Why did the Jets nosedive and is Mangini, like coaches often are under such circumstances, being made a scapegoat for the failures of others?

Probably because it is very hard to fire the players. I said it in my NFL preview this year and I will say it again, I was never 100% sold on the Jets defense, I felt like Gholston was a wasted draft pick and Kris Jenkins is a T.O. type locker room guy, but he just pouts and does not go to the press.

Mangini and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer unsuccessfully tried to curb Favre from throwing an NFL-high 22 interceptions by stressing discipline and patience.

I think Mangini should not have gotten fired and been allowed a do-over on this one. Favre is never going to curb his tendency to throw interceptions. It's not happening.

As reported exclusively Sunday by FOXSports.com's Jay Glazer, Mangini's tendency to emphasize minutiae with players during weekly game preparation didn't fly with a headstrong quarterback notorious for having shaky study habits.

As "great" as Brett Favre is, I really hope the Jets did not fire a coach, even though some people didn't like him seemed to put together a decent team, to appease a 39 year old quarterback.

After the Dolphins loss, Favre said he didn't have a timetable and a decision wouldn't be made for at least a week.

By then, the Jets will be well into their head coaching search. That means Favre will be under more pressure than he ever faced in Green Bay toward making a quick judgment about his NFL future.

This is not going to end well at all. Peter King will surely write a story defending Brett Favre at some point, but there is no way he makes a decision on if he is coming back by February, and even then he will change his mind.

Whoever gets the Jets job will want to know whether Favre plans to play, his commitment to participating in an off-season program and if his problematic right shoulder requires surgery.

As this head coach should have the right to do, but this still is not going to end well.

6. Rod Marinelli was going to get fired but why the hell did they promote two people in the organization?

If anyone out there is a Detroit Lions fan, it is not going to get any better any time soon.

7. I think moving the Pro Bowl to the week before the Super Bowl is a bad decision.

Barring a schedule change, next season's Pro Bowl will take place Jan. 31, 2010, with the Super Bowl that year on Feb. 7. The league's plan is for players on the AFC and NFC championship squads not to take part in the Pro Bowl.

So when about 20 players don't play in the game because of injuries/they don't want to play, the best players of the best teams are not allowed to play, and the team's players who just lose in the NFC/AFC Championship opt out because they are still upset over losing...what is going to be left to watch? It's bad enough as it is now, but now you take the Pro Bowl away from Hawaii and fewer players may attend and players don't want to play in the game anyway so they will back out making even more players voted in non-attendance. Just cancel the game.

College football/basketball don't require the 1st/2nd team All American players to play a game, just have the teams named and don't require a game if it is going to get half assed.

8. Bill Simmons actually has a decent column up. Nothing egregious but also nothing that has to do with the NFL. I have a feeling it is NBA time in his world now. I just hope he starts following college basketball again, because he has no clue about that. Like zero.

9. The Jets are doing everything in their power to get Bill Cowher as head coach.

I think Cowher is a great coach but I also know that he coached in a great organization there in Pittsburgh, which obviously helped him be successful. They have had a great defensive scheme for a few years, made good draft choices and great ownership. The New York Jets situation is not like that and I wonder if he could duplicate his success in Pittsburgh in another city. I guess the same question was asked when Bill Parcells left the Giants and it worked out...

10. I think I am going to try and post J.S. and my NFL preview results here in a day or so. Our ability to predict the team's records was not very impressive. Here is just a hint, he thought the Raiders would go 11-5 and I said the Jaguars would go 13-3. I can't wait to make fun of myself.

6 comments Jemele Hill Drives Me Over the Edge

I complain about big market teams, or specifically Northeast of the United States teams, getting all of the press in Peter King's columns and I find this to be true. I think he should cover other teams. Normally, I have no problem with how teams are shown on television because I know the system and how it works. Dallas is going to get a lot of primetime games and so are other teams who are popular, and I am fine with that. I don't actually care if my favorite team makes it to Monday Night Football every year and I don't care how many of my favorite team's players make the Pro Bowl. Doesn't matter to me. It matters to Jemele Hill, which is ironic because she works for a sports organization that is predominantly responsible for how players and teams are covered and portrayed in the media. ESPN tells us who is a good player, and who is not, all year long, but Jemele blames the fans for Pro Bowl snubs. Let's find out why.

Pro Bowl voting ends Tuesday, and I'm prepared for another year in which popularity and reputation trump actual production and impact.

It's a popularity contest. How did you just figure this out? The fans are the ones who watch the Pro Bowl, so the fans choose who they want to see play in the Pro Bowl. It is actually a fairly simple process the NFL has going here.

Fan votes account for a third of the Pro Bowl selection process, with coaches' and players' ballots accounting for the rest.

I am not going to do the math for all of you right now but suffice to say the fans are the ones who get all the blame for the selections and they only account for 1/3 of the vote. Just like ESPN ignores the lack of coherency and logic in Jemele Hill's columns because only 1/3 of her brain actually works, the fans should be excused for their fan voting because they don't even make up the majority of the votes accounted for.

(I don't really know how this works honestly and I should look into it. I don't think there are as many coaches and players voting as there are fans, so there must be a formula that equally weighs all the votes.)

That doesn't sound like a harmful equation, but I'm advocating that the paying customers be left out. No disrespect.

I am advocating you be fired and go to work at Burger King working the fry machine because you are stupid. No disrespect.

But according to the most recent Pro Bowl numbers, Warner was third in the voting and Ryan ranked fifth. Naturally, the fan support is strongly behind Eli Manning and Drew Brees, who have hogged the nationally televised games. Both are having solid seasons, but Warner and Ryan have been better.

I don't watch the Pro Bowl and I don't give a shit about the Pro Bowl. It doesn't count so it doesn't matter to me. The fans are able to vote for who they want to see play and I see no problem with that.

I would also like to say I think Matt Ryan does not deserve to make the Pro Bowl and I think Drew Brees most definitely deserves it. I have no idea in what world Jemele Hill lives or if she has actually looked at an NFL game this year but Drew Brees is an awesome quarterback who early in the year did a whole lot with nothing.

Poor ex-Super Bowl and regular season MVP Kurt Warner, no one seems to give him any attention for his accomplishments though. Matt Ryan is only fifth in the Pro Bowl voting his rookie year? What a snub!

Meanwhile Ryan, whom I think also deserves MVP consideration, improbably rejuvenated a franchise that appeared dead a year ago.

That is her reasoning for Matt Ryan making the Pro Bowl. Not based on numbers but the fact Atlanta sucked last year and now they don't. It has nothing to do with Roddy White or Michael Turner, just Matty Iccccccccce 2 Ryan.

And speaking of New York, Brett Favre is the leading AFC vote-getter for quarterbacks -- even though Chad Pennington has outplayed Favre, and Kerry Collins has arguably meant more to his team than any quarterback in the NFL.

The fans are idiots. It's proven every single year when it comes to fan balloting for anything. The problem is these All Star games are for the fans, not the scouts or anyone else. That was the entire purpose of an All Star Game originally, to honor the great players and to let the fans see their favorite players all in one game. To not allow the fans a vote would defeat part of the purpose and less people would watch the game at that point then currently watch the game.

Jemele is advocating Kerry Collins makes the Pro Bowl. You ready for the next sentence?

Fans love football because it's a team sport, but when it comes to the Pro Bowl, they're suckered by the big names, no matter whether their performance justifies their selection or not.

I know Jemele Hill would not get suckered by Chad Pennington and Kerry Collins would she? Kerry Collins does not deserve to make the Pro Bowl. How can Jemele Hill be any dumber? There is no possible way she can be. She writes a sentence saying Kerry Collins should be considered and then in the next sentence says everyone gets suckered by names, not performance.

Here are their rankings respectively:

QB Rating: 2nd, 9th

Yards: 4th and 11th

Completion %: 3rd and 13th

YPA: 3rd and 12th

TD: 9th and 11th

INT: 1st (tied)

Chad Pennington actually could deserve a Pro Bowl selection but there is no way in hell Kerry Collins deserves to be named. Jemele Hill is an idiot.

Brett Favre's rankings:

QB Rating: 6th

Yards: 7th

Completion %: 1st

YPA: 10th

TD: 4th

INT: 16th (dead last...meaning he has the most in the AFC)

Favre doesn't deserve the Pro Bowl either, especially since I kept seeing the names Jay Cutler, Peyton Manning and Phillip Rivers (yes, him) ranked above him. If you want to base it on the numbers only Chad Pennington borderline deserves to be in the Pro Bowl, but it is the fans who watch the game, so they deserve a choice.

There have been several years when the best teams in the NFL have had very few Pro Bowl players. The Patriots and Eagles each had the best record in 2003, but just four Pro Bowl players between them.

What happened to Jemele's "any team who hogs the spotlight and plays in a big market gets more Pro Bowl votes" theory? The Patriots and the Eagles appeared on Monday Night Football a total of 4 times together that year and considering the Eagles were in the middle of going to four straight NFC championship games and the Patriots had won a Super Bowl recently they were not exactly small market, shitty teams. Jemele has no point. None. ESPN has to fire her immediately. Even when she has a point, she destroys it with bad facts and even worse logic.

As long as the fans are a factor, NFL teams will blitz them with marketing campaigns that invite them to forget about making objective, common-sense picks.

As will ESPN, the company you are currently working for. The same company that currently has the rights to Monday Night Football and gets to at least have a say in which teams are going to be featured in the spotlight every week.

Players and coaches aren't perfect, but if it were just left up to them there would at least be some semblance of order and the process couldn't be so easily hijacked. It also would make a Pro Bowl honor mean more.

They do have 2/3 say in the voting right now. The majority of the weight is directed towards the players and coaches. Why the hell would the coaches and players give the voting some semblance of order and process? What do they know that the normal fans do not know? Again, the whole point is that the Pro Bowl is a game for the fans to see their favorite players play against each other and also for the players to have a chance to be honored. Every year, players don't play in the Pro Bowl for various reasons, so those who get "snubbed" would get an opportunity to play anyway when other players back out.

If the players and coaches were the only ones who voted then the Pro Bowl would actually mean less to the fans, which means less people would watch the game, which means the game is less of an exhibition for the fans and the game becomes less relevant. Why is the answer to always cut the fans out of the process? Last time I checked they were the ones who paid money to watch the players play and allowed the players to make millions of dollars in endorsements and contracts.

The flaw in the current system wouldn't be such a big deal if the Pro Bowl didn't matter so much. No doubt, the game itself has turned into a sham. There's no real tackling or blitzing. Guys put forth maybe 20 percent effort on a given play. When Barry Switzer coached the NFC in February 1995, he ate a hot dog on the sidelines.

Exactly! It is an exhibition game. It is supposed to be that way.

But a lot of players have financial incentives tied to Pro Bowl appearances,

It's not like the best players in the league are getting snubbed every single year. I am also sure in a contract worth millions, an extra 200K for a Pro Bowl appearance is not that big of a deal to a player. Maybe it is, if so, then that player should put up numbers making him worth being voted into the Pro Bowl. Seriously, the fans are not the only problem here.

and that accolade is often used to determine how good a player or team might be.

You are retarded if you tie how good a player or a team is in with Pro Bowl appearances. Jemele has already acknowledged the Pro Bowl is worthless and the fans get the voting all wrong, so why in the hell would you base your perception of a team's ability on Pro Bowl selections? Who gives a shit whether anyone is able to determine how good a team or player might be? The fans are not supposed to vote so ESPN's talking heads can be more accurate with their preseason projected standings and not be blinded by Pro Bowl appearances? I hope no serious "expert" bases his/her projection of how good a team will be on Pro Bowl appearances. If so, that person should be fired immediately.

The most-repeated statistic about the Cowboys heading into this season was that they had an NFL-record 13 Pro Bowl players last season -- which only fueled the belief the Cowboys were the most talented team (on paper) in the NFC. Well, they aren't. The Giants had one Pro Bowl player and won the Super Bowl.

Exactly. Shut the hell up about not being able to accurately predict how a team is going to do. Who was fooled by this belief the Cowboys were the best team? The experts? If so, they are complete and utter morons. Are these ex-players who are blinded by Pro Bowl selections the same ones Jemele wants voting for the Pro Bowl? Yes. There is a problem there.

There is no correlation between Super Bowls and Pro Bowl players on a team. None. If you can't grasp this concept you should not be a sportswriter, you should be shoveling shit out of a horse's stall somewhere in Montana, so you are providing something positive to society.

Here's the real deal on this issue. Every expert, and I am talking about Tiki Barber, Jemele Hill, Ron Jaworski, Tony Kornheiser, Mike Tirico, Chris Collinsworth, Peter King, and every other person affiliated with football, thinks that Pro Bowl selections make a player great. This is why All Star Game appearances is always used when a player is having his Hall of Fame credentials mentioned. This is wrong because it is essentially a popularity contest for an exhibition game and has no bearing on the real football games played.

All these "experts" want the fans to not be able to vote for the Pro Bowl so we can determine who the real great players in the league are. There are three problems with this: players and coaches know about as much as the fans, they have their own biases, and they currently have the majority vote for the Pro Bowl. So nothing would really change. The Pro Bowl means nothing. Quit using it as a reason a player or team is great because it is an exhibition game. Simple as that. Shut up.

I'm openly campaigning for Winfield because he's had a spectacular season. He has a pair of interceptions and has caused three fumbles.

It is very difficult to determine a cornerback's worth because many of the top corners don't have good stats because quarterbacks rarely throw to them. I am just going to base this comment on what I know about Jemele Hill. That comment is that I don't think with two INT's Antoine Winfield deserves to make the Pro Bowl and that is why he has never made it.

"My oldest son said, 'Dad, why don't you get a signature dance?'" Winfield said. "But I'm not the one who is going to get up and dance."

Not when some people seem so satisfied with the same old tune.

So if the fans are cut out of the vote, more deserving players like Antoine Winfield, are going to get recognized and then that is how we know he is a great player. So when the Vikings get three Pro Bowl selections (Peterson, Winfield, Kevin Williams) and the Giants get two (Eli Manning and Justin Tuck) justice has been served and we will know for sure the Vikings are a better team than the Giants and the experts can finally have their preseason projections be more accurate. Wait, that still doesn't seem to work does it? Exactly. I hate Jemele Hill's writing.

(I swallowed 37 pills of Tylenol writing this column.)